Lal Bahadur Shastri

Why is in news? PM pays homage to late PM Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri at Vijay Ghat on his birth anniversary

He wasborn on 2nd October, 1904in Mughalsarai, a small railway town seven miles fromVaranasi in Uttar Pradesh.

Shastri's thoughts wereinfluenced by reading about Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi and Annie Besant.

Deeply impressed and influenced by Gandhi, he joined the Indian independence movement in the 1920s.

He served as the president ofServants of the People Society(Lok Sevak Mandal), founded by Lala Lajpat Rai and held prominent positions in Indian National Congress.

After independence, he was minister in the Union Cabinet from 1951 to 1956 when he resigned taking responsibility for the railway accident and later from 1957-1964.

He wasIndia’s second Prime Minister (1964-66).

During Shastri’s brief Prime Ministership, the countryfaced two major challenges.

While India was still recovering from the economic implications of thewar with China (1962), failed monsoons, drought and serious food crisispresented a grave challenge. The country also faced awar with Pakistan in 1965.

Shastri’s famousslogan ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’, symbolised the country’s resolve to face both these challenges.

Shastri’s Prime Ministership came to an abrupt end on 10th January 1966, when hesuddenly expired in Tashkent, then in USSR and currently the capital of Uzbekistan.

He was there to discuss andsign an agreement (Tashkent Agreement) with Muhammad Ayub Khan, the then President of Pakistan, to end the war.

He signed anagreement with then Ceylon(now Sri Lanka) on persons of Indian origin there, in 1964 — an endorsement of the importance of neighbourhood.

He was thefirst person to be posthumously awarded the Bharat Ratna(1966).